NEAT Ways to Burn Calories

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Did you know you could burn calories by just talking on the phone? Sure! If you pace while you chat instead of sitting down, you burn calories without even thinking about it! This is NEAT! No, really; NEAT stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermoneogenesis These are activities that you can do every day to burn calories without going to the gym. Some NEAT activities that are easily incorporated into your day include:

Choosing the furthest parking spot from your destination

Taking the stairs instead of the elevator

Pacing while you’re waiting for something or while you’re on the phone

Fidget while you are sitting down.

Sit on an exercise ball if you work at a desk all day

Take a lap: If you often find yourself sitting around a lot try to stand up and walk around for a few minutes. For example if you are studying at the library it is a good idea to take a 20 minute break every so often to give your mind a rest; so take a couple laps around the library. Go up or down to other floors.

Some activities you may not need to do every day but are still considered NEAT activities include shopping, cleaning the house, doing yard work and countless others. A good rule of thumb to use is minimizing the amount of sitting you do each day. If you can incorporate these little tidbits of exercise into your daily life you can shed a few pounds or maintain your weight loss. Keep in mind though, that there is a cumulative effect with NEAT activities. You cannot simply add one NEAT activity to your day and expect to drop ten pounds in a week. This is just a helpful means of promoting physical activity for promoting and maintaining weight loss and preventing weight gain. NEAT activities also increase your metabolic rate. This means that it will become easier for you to lose weight because you will be able to burn more calories when you do work out or participate in more NEAT activities. There are so many things you can do to increase the amount of calories burned in a day, so get off your bum and no more excuses!